Who is Louise Haigh and why has she resigned as UK’s transport minister?

Louise Haigh’s resignation as the UK’s transport secretary has brought new scrutiny to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government, marking the first cabinet departure since Labour’s victory in July 2024.

Haigh, a key figure behind the party’s rail nationalisation bill, stepped down after a decade-old fraud conviction resurfaced.

Her resignation adds to mounting challenges for Starmer, whose government is already grappling with declining public approval.

Who is Louise Haigh and why has she resigned?

Haigh, 37, was the youngest member of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet and the UK’s transport secretary since Labour’s victory in July 2024.

A long-serving Labour member of parliament since 2015, Haigh rose through the ranks under both Jeremy Corbyn and Starmer. She pushed forward the Labour’s rail nationalisation agenda, which passed Parliament earlier in November.

She resigned on November 29 after a decade-old fraud conviction resurfaced.

Haigh’s friends say that in 2013, after a “terrifying” mugging, she could not find her work phone in her bag and reported it as stolen to police. Haigh’s employer, Aviva, a private insurance company, provided her with a new mobile.

Haigh later discovered the missing phone in a drawer and switched it on to check messages, her friends say. However, she failed to notify authorities that she found the phone. When the mobile’s signal was picked up by the phone company, they alerted the police, who then asked Haigh to come in and make a statement.

The exact timeline of these events is unclear, but Haigh pleaded guilty to fraud by misrepresentation in 2014. She received a discharge without any further action against her.

Meanwhile, Aviva reportedly investigated at least one other missing phone, suspecting that Haigh was seeking newer models — a claim her allies deny. Haigh eventually resigned from Aviva, feeling the investigation was unfair.

Although she said her failure to notify police about finding the phone was a mistake, the public disclosure of the charge has raised questions about her adherence to government ethics standards.

When Haigh entered the cabinet in July, she did not mention the conviction to the government’s propriety and ethics team. However, she was only asked about unspent convictions, which are the rehabilitation processes following a criminal conviction that are still being served.

Haigh claimed to have informed Starmer about the charge when she joined his shadow cabinet, but Downing Street did not confirm this.

In a statement before her resignation, Haigh said that “under the advice of my solicitor I pleaded guilty -– despite the fact this was a genuine mistake from which I did not make any gain”.

In a resignation letter, published by Downing Street, Haigh said she wanted to avoid being a “distraction” to the government.

“I remain totally committed to our political project, but I now believe it will be best served by my supporting you from outside government,” she wrote.

Just hours later, Starmer announced Heidi Alexander, 49, as Haigh’s replacement.

Alexander, a senior minister in the Ministry of Justice, was also deputy mayor of London for transport between 2018 and 2021.

Heidi Alexander has been appointed as Haigh’s replacement [Toby Melville/Reuters]

Is this the first scandal since Starmer became PM?

This is the first resignation from Starmer’s cabinet since Labour took power in July, but not the first controversy under his leadership.

Starmer’s Labour government has faced backlash over policies such as cutting fuel payments for the elderly and imposing major tax hikes, as well as growing criticism for appointing party loyalists to civil service roles, raising concerns about impartiality.

A recent POLITICO investigation revealed that Emily Middleton, temporary director general for Digital Centre Design at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and Ian Corfield, who resigned as an official to the chancellor Rachel Reeves in August, were promoted to senior rungs of the civil service, despite both having worked for the Labour Party in opposition and having been involved in donating to party figures.

The Institute for Government (IfG), a British independent think tank, also accused Labour of undermining merit-based recruitment and ethics by bypassing traditional processes for political appointments.

“It undermines the principle of merit — core to an impartial civil service — if ministers appear to freely give jobs to political allies without fair and open competition. The exceptions process should be just that — exceptional. It should not be a backdoor for political appointments,” said Hannah White, IfG director and CEO, in August.

White suggested that the government should have appointed politically aligned outsiders as special advisers (SpAds) or policy advisers (Pads), roles traditionally used for political appointees in the British government.

Starmer’s government has also faced backlash from farmers over inheritance tax changes and businesses over its first budget, which introduced the largest tax hikes in a generation, targeting companies and the wealthy.

A petition has also been launched in the UK calling for another general election as the Labour party has “gone back on the promises” it laid out before the last election. With nearly 3 million signatures, the UK Parliament will debate the petition in parliament on January 6.

What have the reactions been?

There have been mixed reactions to Haigh’s resignation.

Starmer thanked Haigh for her contributions, particularly towards getting the country’s railways back into public ownership. However, observers say the brevity of his response indicated some distance between him and his former minister.

The opposition’s Conservative Party welcomed Haigh’s resignation as the “right thing to do” but criticised Starmer’s decision to appoint her despite being aware of her past conviction.

“The onus is now on Keir Starmer to explain this obvious failure of judgment to the British public,” a spokesperson for the Conservative Party said in a statement.

Several observers, however, are also calling Haigh’s treatment unfair, particularly compared with how other ministers’ controversies have been handled.

“Louise Haigh’s resignation sets a ridiculously low bar for cabinet service. We’re now saying there can be no rehabilitation for anyone in public life who has committed the most minor of offences,” wrote commentator Dan Hodges on X.

A Conservative Party spokesman says Louise Haigh “failed to behave to the standards expected of an MP", as she hadn’t thrown a lockdown party, bullied a civil servant, given a PPE contract to her mate, gone on reality TV instead of doing her job or crashed the economy pic.twitter.com/IJd0FaJLGc

— Have I Got News For You (@haveigotnews) November 29, 2024

Grant Shapps literally lied about his identity and was allowed to be Transport, Home, Energy and Defence Secretary. Louise Haigh made an honest mistake and received bad legal advice is forced to resign. The double standards are insane.

— Anna (@ox_anna29) November 29, 2024